This morning Travalon and I were a bit poky, plus we had to get going right away after Mass, so we went to the church closer to our house. I noticed in the hymnal that there was music (which we didn't sing) by someone named Rawn Harbor. I thought that was an awesome name, so I googled him, and he's "one of the preeminent African American Catholic liturgists." Now I'd really like to hear his music!
Yesterday we had been bummed that we wouldn't have time to go to Port Washington, since on Friday five flamingos were spotted there. All the bird nerds were posting photos on social media. As it turns out, my work picnic saved us a trip, because the flamingos were gone by yesterday. Can you imagine the first person who spotted them? They have never been seen before in Wisconsin! The experts say they were blown off-course by Hurricane Idalia.
Travalon and I met Tiffy at Dogs N Suds, an old-fashioned drive-in in Richmond, Illinois. There is a building in town that claims to be St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
However, I am skeptical because a) the architectural features are much more typical of a Congregational church, and b) this is clearly a happy cyclops wearing a dunce cap. Don't worry, Dogs N Suds was just as surreal - check out their stob sign!
Then we went to the Richardson Corn Maze, which claims to be the "world's largest" corn maze.
The theme this year was dinosaurs. We found a display of their previous years' designs, and Travalon said, "I don't suppose they have a Beatles one." But then look what he found:
Too bad we didn't know about this place in 2013, right? I was surprised that Travalon was going to do the corn maze with us at all, and he said, "I'm not like Mr. A Corn Maze King or anything, but I'll try it." So he did a bit of it with us and then went to explore the other wonders of the Richardson Farm. There was a train for kids.
There was a petting zoo with a pony, baby goats, rabbits, and all sorts of fowl.
There were singing animatronic chickens. (I hope to post a video soon.) And for an extra charge, you could zipline over the whole thing or get rolled around in a giant hamster ball in something they called "zorbing." Here's a picture of what it looked like inside the maze:
As opposed to the eight punches we have to find at the corn maze we go to closer to home, this one had twenty-four, but they were all marked on the map, so the only challenge was reading the map. I prefer having to "think like a Treinen" to find the punches. Tiffy and I were in the maze quite a while while Travalon was entertaining himself, but we did find all the punches and walked over six miles.
On the way home, Travalon and I passed a Greek Orthodox monastery. Only four brothers live there, and one came out to see us and was very friendly. He showed us inside.
We asked if they sold icons, and they said they would give us one for a donation, so we picked one that I forgot to take a photo of. He gave us all these snacks for the road too, and asked us to write our names so that they could pray for us. He was so nice!
I did remember to take photos of the jewelry I bought at the North Side Festival yesterday. First is the Evil Eye Protector ring. I don't know why my hand always looks a hundred years older in photos than in real life - you'd think I was my mother-in-law's age from this photo.
And this is the bracelet with the tiny Niko on it.
Niko is not very big himself, but he looks enormous next to Tiny Niko!
I forgot about the Slow Irish Jam today, and of course I missed Irish class and band practice, but they might have assumed I was at the Slow Irish jam. So even if I'd been in town, I would have skipped both things anyway.
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